The gemshorn is an instrument of the

ocarina The ocarina is a wind musical instrument; it is a type of vessel flute. Variations exist, but a typical ocarina is an enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouthpiece that projects from the body. It is traditionally made from c ...

family that was historically made from the horn of a

chamois The chamois (''Rupicapra rupicapra'') or Alpine chamois is a species of goat-antelope native to mountains in Europe, from west to east, including the Alps, the Dinarides, the Tatra and the Carpathian Mountains, the Balkan Mountains, the Ril ...

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

, or other suitable animal.Windkanal 2/01
p. 9 The gemshorn receives its name from the

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...

, in which ''Gemshorn'' means a "chamois horn".

History

The gemshorn was in use in the 15th century. Examples have been unearthed in Italy, in Hungary and in Germany, including one intact instrument made of clay which dates at least to 1450, as it was found buried beneath the foundation of a house built at that time. The early history of the instrument is not well-known, but the oldest known illustration of one in a reference work is in ''Musica Getutscht'' (1511), by

Sebastian Virdung Sebastian Virdung (born c. 1465) was a German composer and theorist on musical instruments. He is grouped among the composers known as the Colorists. He studied in Heidelberg as a scholar of Johannes von Soest at the chapel of the ducal court. Af ...

. A skeletal figure is seen holding one in a

Danse Macabre The ''Danse Macabre'' (; ) (from the French language), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory of the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death. The ''Danse Macabre'' consists of the dead, or a personification of ...

illustration dated to 1485.Windkanal 2/01
p. 7 There is also mention of this instrument in " The Complaynt of Scotlande" as "ane gatehorn"(goat horn). They were primarily a pastoral instrument and were not widely known after the mid-to-late 16th century. With resurgent interest in

early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad musical era for the beginning of Western classical m ...

in the 19th and 20th centuries, they have received new attention. Horace Fitzpatrick developed a form of gemshorn which adopted the fingering method of recorders and produced them in

consort __NOTOC__ Consort may refer to: Music * "The Consort" (Rufus Wainwright song), from the 2000 album ''Poses'' * Consort of instruments, term for instrumental ensembles * Consort song (musical), a characteristic English song form, late 16th–earl ...

families, which have proven very popular since the 1960s.

Construction

Modern gemshorns are often made of the horns of domesticated

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

, because they are readily available, and their use prevents endangering wild species. The hollow horn has

tone hole A tone hole is an opening in the body of a wind instrument which, when alternately closed and opened, changes the pitch of the sound produced. Tone holes may serve specific purposes, such as a trill hole or register hole. A tone hole is, "in w ...

s down the front, like a

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

. The pointed end of the horn is left intact, and serves as the bottom of the instrument. A

fipple The term fipple specifies a variety of end-blown flute that includes the flageolet, recorder, and tin whistle. The Hornbostel–Sachs system for classifying musical instruments places this group under the heading "Flutes with duct or duct flute ...

plug, usually of

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

, is fitted into the wide end of the instrument, with a recorder type voicing window on the front of the horn, for tone production. On more advanced models, there is a "tuning ring". This is a metal band or ring, placed between the voicing window and the top tone hole. A hole is drilled through this ring and the horn beneath. When the ring is turned with the fingers the hole is partially blocked. This lowers the flute's keynote by up to about one major tone. Partial wax closure of the dorsal (rear) thumb hole will accomplish the same keynote tuning. Some recent makers have used synthetic materials in place of the animal horn. Another alternative, offered by some makers, is wooden gemshorns.

Playing and sound

16th-century illustrations show an instrument which had only a few tone holes, and a very limited range. The intact clay gemshorn, mentioned above, which was found beneath a 15th-century house, had a chromatic range of one octave. Modern makers have often chosen to build them using the Baroque

fingering. The sound of the gemshorn is like that of other flutes, but with an ocarina-like lack of harmonic overtones.

Organ stop

There is a gemshorn

organ stop An organ stop is a component of a pipe organ that admits pressurized air (known as ''wind'') to a set of organ pipes. Its name comes from the fact that stops can be used selectively by the organist; each can be "on" (admitting the passage of air ...

, modeled after this instrument. Its pipes are conical, with the wind going in at the wide end, as in the actual gemshorn. In organ pipe classification it is a flute/string hybrid.

References

External links